The Corps of Discovery Shoves Off

• On the morning of May 13, 1804, Captain William Clark and a staff of around 40 people leaves the Army camp of River Dubois, on the eastern mouth of the Missouri River.

• On the following day, the team reaches the French village of St. Charles, near St. Louis, where they wait to pick up Captain Lewis.

• Later that afternoon, the Corps leave the village and sets up camp on an island four miles away.

• On May 23rd, the Corps leaves the island and sets up a new camp near a creek named Osage Woman's River, a settlement of around 40 American families.
• On June 12th, the Corps buys 300 pounds of buffalo grease from a trading cargo and pick up Pierre Doiron, a veteran trader with an intimate knowledge of the Sioux tribes.

• On Independence Day, the Corps christens a creek the "Fourth of July 1804 Creek."